(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) solid-state imaging device reading out signal charges accumulated in a plurality of photoelectric conversion units in a matrix array (in rows and columns) in order to obtain signals of a two-dimensional image. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technology of transferring the signal charges.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A typical example of solid-state imaging devices is a CCD solid-state imaging device that has been widely used. The CCD solid-state imaging device is used in an imaging unit in camcorders, digital cameras, and the like, or in an image recognition unit in facsimiles, image scanners, and the like. Such a CCD solid-state imaging device has a CCD image sensor (CCD solid-state imaging element) as an imaging element.
Examples of the technologies related to the conventional CCD solid-state imaging devices are disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications Nos. 2007-295365 and 2006-129137 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Reference 1 and Patent Reference 2, respectively).